Cheap at half the price

It's been the worst-kept secret in football for the past week, but within the past few minutes Kaka has officially been revealed as a Real Madrid player, signing from AC Milan for £56m.

That is, in sterling terms at least, a world record fee.

Or, to put it another way, it's just over half the reported £100m Manchester City were willing to pay for the player's services during the January transfer window.

It's not often - for which, read: never - that £56m can be considered a bargain, but I would think that Real Madrid president Fiorentino Perez will be silently raising a glass to City chief executive Garry Cook for making it look like exactly that. He can also thank Cook for making the seemingly unthinkable possible. Kaka had been at Milan for six years and, prior to City's audacious bid, there had never previously been a credible whisper about him ever considering a move. But whatever happened behind the scenes in January - and City and Milan provide two very different viewpoints on that - it was enough to open the door to a possibility which has now become reality.

Madrid are likely to launch further raids - there has been much talk of Perez brandishing a €200m (£170m) budget this summer - which could trigger a domino effect leading to some serious movement of footballing talent between Europe's top clubs as the cash starts to flow.

A quiet off-season? Don't make me laugh ...